A cold snap in Florida has every county declared a disaster area and its my job to show Floridians what their farmers are going through. I attempt to do this beautifully, making the images as impactful as possible.

I decided this would be the project I would once and for all learn the basics of Final Cut Pro and get some directing practice under my belt.

jackie and i are working, slowly but steadily, on our most ambitious project to date:

a feature-length historical documentary/where are they now?/social investigation about the international phenomenon that was/is FMILLEST.
what’s an FMillest, you say? it was/is our crew from our more formidable years, a group of people brought together by rollerblading. but it turned into much more than a skate crew.

so when jackie was down here a few weeks ago, we decided to:
A) see where everyone was, and what they’re doing
B) see if we can scare up as many old photos/videos/letters/etc. from that time as possible, and
C) put it all together as a documentary
we are now in the interviewing and old-media-gathering phase of the project, which we expect will last a long time. my conservative estimate for completion is one year. each interview, thus far, has been at least an hour. we’re looking at the possibility of acquiring THOUSANDS of stills, and HOURS UPON HOURS of old skate/party video.

Wesside’s interview was done on a rocking chair in his daughter’s (pink) room, with little mya in one hand and a quart of old english in the other.
Ol’School’s interview, if all goes according to plan, will be done via conference call on speakerphone while his buddy does the shooting in nashville (where Ol’School now lives).
while the most apparent reason for attempting this project is, as i will call it, active reminiscence, there’s a much more important mission:
we’re trying to figure out what it was about FMillest that made it so…special.
while it may be easy to say that we were so crazy because we’re skaters, that’s not entirely true. see, rollerbladers from around the country/world—young, old, pro, unknown—all thought we were crazy.
my hypothesis is that FORT MYERS was the base of the insanity, and rollerblading was simply an accelerant.
anyway, i’ll give periodic progress updates, along with maybe some little clips or production photos or whatever. this is going to be fun.

jackie and i are working, slowly but steadily, on our most ambitious project to date: a feature-length historical documentary/where are they now?/social investigation about the international phenomenon that was/is FMILLEST….

so this:

is a video i shot/cut for a friend’s band, bus-stop shanking. shot it like 6 weeks ago, but finally got it finished last night.
it actually came out pretty close to what i saw in my head beforehand:

the exceptions to the realization of that vision being
A) not being able to get ahold of a single tarp/sheet big enough, and having to use 3 bed sheets instead, and
B) having to deal with a drunker-than-expected, and astonishingly uncooperative, band. which of course led to fewer usable takes, fewer takes…period, and therefore VERY limited raw footage to work with.
but i gave it the old college try, and am mildly pleased with the outcome.
we finished another one too, which i will put up here as soon as i figure out this vimeo thing…
so this: is a video i shot/cut for a friend’s band, bus-stop shanking. shot it like 6 weeks ago, but finally got it finished last night. it actually came out…

I’m Doug. I’m a Photojournalist with a CBS affiliate in Florida, trying to branch out into documentary/educational territory. For my Freshman effort, I present to you:
Fun with Photons: Episode 1-In a pinch…

So I was doing a routine “Satellite Center” shot all morning today. That’s where we set up in master control (where they switch between local and network programming) and *.reporter talks about *.the lead from last night.
Simple shot, controlled environment.
…unless you have the palsy.
—Somehow I slept on a 9v battery a couple weeks ago, and I suffered radial nerve palsy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrist_drop)—
So in my limp-wristed state, I apparently wasn’t able to tighten the lock on one of my light stands enough. 90sec out from a live shot,
SHHHINK…CRACK. POP!
80sec.- No back/hair light, no extra bulb.
70- Run to the other side of the room, steal the operator’s chair. Stand on it.
60- Struggle on tippy-toes, on a rolling chair, to reach the track lighting above the switcher.
45- Get the light pointed roughly at *.reporter‘s head. Leap from chair.
40- Get back to camera. Realize track light is considerably weaker than the backlight that popped.
35- Adjust key light, pulling further away from subject. Take a guess on appropriate distance/brightness, no time to double-check in viewfinder.
25- Back to camera. Slam iris to full open, engage shutter option(1/250). Hope the shallower DOF will make up some of the separation lost with a weaker backlight.
15- STAND BY- Zoom in, re-focus because the backfocus on the camera will never stay set.
10- Re-compose shot, because *.reporter got flustered when I jumped on the chair and wasn’t in the right spot any more. Damn, you can see the program monitor over her shoulder! The whole shot will look like one of those hallways of mirros that create endless reflected subjects!
5- Kick/slide tripod about 5-7in to the right, which tucks said monitor back into its place, BEHIND the reporter. Re-re-compose shot.
ON AIR. Clean.

I’m Doug. I’m a Photojournalist with a CBS affiliate in Florida, trying to branch out into documentary/educational territory. For my Freshman effort, I present to you: Fun with Photons: Episode…